Case Discussion
The case started with the death of
Sashihara(cosmetics company manager)!
She was found dead after being strangled in the changing room.
The three suspects are:
-
Yamaki (Sashihara's assistant)
-
Nitsuka (Customer)
-
Nanbu (Sales clerk)
There were three changing rooms and the victim was found dead in the middle one. Yamaki was in the left room, Nitsuka was in the right and Nanbu was the one who discovered the body. The victim left a dying message through their hand gestures.
The three of them went in to the changing rooms in a certain order. First one was Yamaki, who was guided by Nanbu into the left room.
By that point, Nanbu and Yamaki noticed that there was a pair of white sandals in front of the right room, indicating that it was occupied.
After came Sashihara, the victim, who went into the middle room, since the other two were occupied.
Lastly, Nitsuka came to use the right room, but the white sandals were still there. After waiting for a minute, she went back to check the room, but by then, the white sandals were gone and she finally entered the room.
The first thing to note is the white sandals. They were obviously planted there by the culprit in order to create the illusion that there is an extra suspect. Since the white sandals were in front of the right room, the murderer must have anticipated that Sashihara would enter the middle one because if she entered the left room, it would be questionable to assume the culprit went from the right to the left room without being noticed by someone who might be in the middle room(the one in the middle room would be the most suspicious one before the one in the right room as well).
Going through the scenarios, first of all, the white sandals were placed in front of the right room. Then Yamaki entered the left room. Yamaki was guided by Nanbu, which means she couldn't have predicted which room she would be in and, in other words, which room Sashihara would enter, which means Yamaki is not the killer. If Yamaki was the culprit, the smartest thing to do is to place the sandals in front of the middle room because then it wouldn't matter which room Nanbu guides her to(the "fake culprit" would still have their room next to Sashihara's).
Next one to enter is Nitsuka, but by then, the white sandals were already removed(meaning that the "fake culprit" already fled). Besides, Nitsuka couldn't have killed Sashihara, without risking her fainting again due to her dog allergy(The forensics confirmed that there was dog hair on the floor).
This leaves us with the one who has the best opportunity to control who enters which room, and that is Nanbu, the sales clerk!
She was the one that planted the sandals in front of the right room and guided Yamaki to the left room, leaving Sashihara with no choice but to enter the middle one.
Then where is the white sandals?
None of the suspects had white sandals, but maybe the question should be, "where is the thing that
posed as white sandals?".
What Nanbu could have used to create fake sandals are the big white box(that carries face masks) and the things that were found in the trash can(scissor, tape etc.).
Using these materials, Nanbu could craft a fake pair of sandals, that can easily be disposed of by cutting them into pieces. Since the boxes in the changing rooms seemed untouched, it implies that the culprit used spare boxes that only a sales worker can get their hands on, which further proves that Nanbu has to be the killer.
So to summarize the crime scene, Nanbu prepared the fake sandals, made sure that Sashihara went into the middle room(told her something, or made sure, so that she wouldn't be surprised when she enters her room, beforehand), kills her, takes the fake sandals after Nitsuka leaves, cuts them into pieces, throws away all her materials and leftovers and then finally returns to discover the dead body.
So what is the dying message?
I don't know much about japanese keywords and such, but I can definitely guess what might be involved in the message. First of all, I have come to the conclusion that none of the suggested ideas(in file 970) are the dying message(which is quite obvious). Her pointing to the left room is obviously wrong, since the culprit is Nanbu. The purpose of the number counting was just to give more hints regarding the country that Sera actually came from. The last one that was about the Japanese police guns did point to Nanbu being the culprit, however Sashihara wouldn't have known anything regarding gun names. The only conclusion I'm getting to is that the code has something do with "dogs" and "China". Sashihara seems to own dogs(since her clothes are full of dog hair) and when Nitsuka said "China", Conan and Sera reacted to it, possibly indicating that it might have something to do with the dying message.
Finally, What is Nanbu's motive?
This part is probably gonna be the interesting part of the case. One thing I noticed is that Nanbu doesn't seem to have any memory of meeting Nitsuka the previous week(at the time when Nitsuka collapsed due to her allergy). She was acting as if she was there, but ended up guessing the cause of Nitsuka's fainting wrong. Even Sashihara didn't recognize Nanbu, even though she is a regular customer, but Nanbu still claims that she was hired a month ago.
This seems to be indicating that Nanbu is lying and that she is probably trying to pose as someone else that was previously working there. Her motive could be revenge for whoever she took over(maybe a sister), that might have been verbally abused by Sashihara, which drove the person to commit suicide. Another possibility is that Nanbu killed the former worker in order to take their place, hence why Conan and Sera claimed that this was a "second murder" at the end of file 970, but that feels a bit far-fetched for a typical case.
Edit:
After rereading this, I realized that maybe Sashihara gave
two presents for Yamaki to deliver to the manager because the second one was for the the former salesgirl(that might've committed suicide), as an apology for her behavior...
Plot Discussion
At the beginning of file 969, Sera intentionally shows off a swimsuit that she used to wear as a kid. This triggers Conan's memories of when he met the Akai family for the first time. 10 years ago, he met all the members, excluding the father, and everyone seems to have reacted to his intelligence.
So, Conan's question is, "Who is the woman and the boy?". He already recognized Sera and Akai, but the others are unclear to him. The DC fandom already knows by now that the woman is Mary, the Akai mother, and the boy(who is the middle brother) is Haneda Shuukichi. Mary, who is now shrunken adult, was already confirmed by Sera to be the mom, and Shuukichi's marriage registration revealed that he is the middle brother. The middle brother does seem to look a bit young for his age(18), judging by the body frame, however, everything beyond that looks exactly like Shuukichi.
Another question that has been asked since post-MT-case, in the Bourbon arc, is "Who is the brother on the phone that was talking and texting to Sera?"(specifically during file 858, 860 and 861)
I think it makes the most sense(considering the content of the text conversation between "mid-bro" and Sera in file 860 and 861), that it was Akai.... but that would imply that Akai never saw Shinichi when he talked to him in the flashback.
Here's the reason:
- Sera showed a photo of Conan to "mid-bro". He replies, "If it's him, then there's nothing to worry about"(implying that he has seen his deductive skills before)
[Shuu has seen it in Haido Hospital but it isn't confirmed yet that he saw him 10 yrs ago. Kichi saw him in his first intro case and most likely 10 yrs ago]
- Sera wonders how "mid-bro" knew about Conan(implying that they never met him at the same time 10 yrs ago)
[both Shuu and kichi seemed to be separate from Sera when reacting to Conan]. She asks him about it, he replies, and Sera thinks to herself "I see, so that's how it is"...
[if "brother on the phone" is Shuu(and Sera lied to the others to hide the fact that he is alive), then he could have told her that Conan worked together with the FBI in the past. If it's truly Kichi/mid-bro(like Sera claimed), then he must have told her about his first meeting with Conan 10 yrs ago, since we know for a fact that he has an excellent memory]
- "Mid-bro" says(as if he's trying to change the subject) "P.S have you met the wizard yet?"(implying that Sera must have talked about the wizard a lot, starting from 10 yrs ago in the beach, where both Shuu and Kichi was involved). Sera thinks to herself, as she looks at Conan, "well, you can kinda say that"(implying that she knows Shinichi is Conan)...
[If "brother on the phone" is Kichi, then it wouldn’t make sense for him to not realize that Conan is the "wizard"/"possessed boy", and ask Sera about the "wizard"(when they were just talking about Conan/the "wizard"). How often can you meet an overly intelligent 7-year-old after all? One as intelligent as Kichi would already assume that the "wizard"(who Sera met) and "possessed boy"(who Kichi met) are the same person. If "brother on the phone" is Akai however, than it makes perfect sense why he would ask about the "wizard"(as if it's not Conan), since he might've not seen Conan in the past(we can only see him looking up in the flashback)]
So the conclusion of my long analysis is that Akai has a stronger chance of being the bro on the phone(which explains why Sera seemed rather excited when mentioning "Akai Shuichi" to Conan in File 938) and that Akai most likely didn't see Conan 10 yrs ago.
In file 970, we get another hint to Sera lying about living in the US for three years. She argues with Conan regarding how Europeans counts with their fingers, as if it's from her personal experience living in Europe.
We have gotten tons of hints regarding where she actually came from, and all of them have pointed to the UK. It has already been speculated, from her fashion style(in her intro), and how she says "Football" instead of "Soccer", to the way she holds her fork and knife, that it all points to her having British influence. We already have some indications that Mary is British(making Sera and her brothers half-Japanese) so it's not surprising that they could have moved to Britain.
Can't wait to finally get the flashback that has been teased for so long!
